There are four good rules which are the key to getting it right for the product.
The first rule is to be market-driven, not product-driven. Market-driven businesses use market research to find out what people want I have conducted a questionnaire for my market research, in trying to find the best marketing processes for Strobe Leisure.
The second rule is to get the detail of the product right. There are three things a business has to get right,
- The design must be fit for its purpose.
- The product name must be catchy
- There must be a suitably broad product range to give options to all your potential customers
The third rule is, know your products life cycle. All products go through the same life cycle, they are launched, and sales grow and reach maturity. Saturation is when there is no more room to expand, sales are at their peak. After that, sales start to decline and finally the product becomes obsolete. Strobe Leisure needs to have as long a sales life as possible before they have to update their cinemas.
The final rule is, make your product different from the competition. This means a business has achieved the goal of their product being different to other businesses and is something people want to buy. It might be that your product has a unique design feature, a reputation for reliability or a cool brand image. If you don’t have product differentiation, people think your product is the same as everyone else and will only buy it if it’s cheaper, which means less profit for you. I have advised Strobe Leisure to make their product as original as possible to allow them to make as much profit as possible and become established as quickly as possible.
Branding means a trade name to a product or service. It also refers to developing awareness of the name. Branding is always important, but in the early days of the Internet, it was a major hot topic and tactic. Companies spent a fortune attempting to gain market awareness, no matter how much money they lost. Strobe Leisure centre should make their Branding name Simple and easy to recognize, this will help the customers to identify the Centre, for example: Nike or Microsoft. Also adds value to the business as people associated the business with quality so people will prepare to pay more. Also they could have franchise agreement with Ben and Jerry Ice cream. The main benefit to the franchise is that they are buying the rights to sell an established product – this makes setting up a franchise less of a business risk than selling something brand new. The main problem is that the business can only sell the products of the franchise – so the owner’s freedom is limited.
The second thing I am going to recommend is price. There are five different Pricing strategies which Strobe Leisure can use when they use pricing. The first pricing strategy is Penetration; this is where a firm charges a very low price when the product is new to get lots of people interested in it. When this low price is below cost it is called loss leading. Once the product has become established the firm will increase the price. Strobe Leisure could use this method by selling their food and drinks at a low price to try and stop people bringing their own food and drink in the cinema. The second strategy is Skimming; is the opposite of Penetration pricing. Firms charge a high price to begin with this helps make the product desirable to people with large incomes. When the product has become established the firm will lower the price to help it become a mass-market product. This happens a lot with consumer goods based on new technology such as digital TVs. Strobe Leisure could use this method if they have exclusive showing of films for a VIP night as people will be willing to pay more money. The third strategy Destroyer pricing, is also known as predatory pricing. This is where firms charge low prices that they know are unprofitable for their competitors. Once they have driven competitors out of the market they will raise prices. The fourth strategy is Price Discrimination. This is where firms charge different prices to different consumers for the same product. A good example is cheaper rail travel for students and OAPs. Strobe Leisure could use this method by having peak and non-peak time; they will charge higher price in peak as this is the only time those people could visit the cinema. And finally the fifth strategy is Competition pricing, this is where the firm has to charge similar prices to other firms. It happens when there is lots of choice and not much product differentiation like petrol. Strobe Leisure could use this method for selling their tickets as from my market research I found cinemas sell their tickets at similar prices.
It is important for Strobe Leisure to get their price right, because the price is one of the reasons why people don’t go to cinema that often. The price is also what helps customers decide if they want to go there of somewhere that has cheaper prices. Strobe Leisure has to look at the prices of their competition. Although from looking at the prices from Strobe Leisure it looks like they will not be making as much profit as their competitors short term, but they will long term. Having little cheaper prices will make a big difference to the customers, the lower prices may also encourage people to visit the cinema more often, so this will help Strobe Leisure make more of a profit than its competitors.
The third thing I am going to recommend is Promotion, I thought of many different ways to advertise Strobe to get it recognised, and to get people interested. To get anyone to visit Strobe Leisure cinema, Strobe Leisure needs to be advertised. There are many methods, in which Strobe Leisure can advertise, such as radio adverts, posters displayed on billboards and transport, newspaper, leaflets and national press. I found out from my questionnaire most people take notice of the television adverts. The films will be advertised in the TV but I think that Strobe Leisure should use a local newspaper as in my Market Research people said they found about their cinema in the newspaper.
Strobe Leisure should have a membership card; this is offered to everyone free of charge on their first visit to Strobe Leisure Cinema. Every time a cardholder visits the cinema, they will get points to put on to their card. No points will be given if the cardholder forgets their card, because the card must be swiped into the machine to add the point on. When the cardholders get some points in his card, they will get voucher for 1 bag of sweets etc. the reason for Strobe Leisure having the point membership card is that the customers get something to encourage them to visit the cinema more often. This will increase the number of customers going to visit Strobe Leisure Cinema. The customers need to have something to encourage them to visit Strobe Leisure, as Strobe Leisure will be giving them something back. Special offers get people interested, and give them more of a reason to go there. I got this from my questionnaire; most people wanted something back for giving the cinema their custom.
Strobe Leisure should not Advertise their company and deals on the radio, as this is also for people that are not local, they would not be able to get where Strobe Leisure is, so the advert would be a waste of money. Strobe Leisure should advertise in the local newspaper, and they cam include the film times in the paper as well.
Strobe Leisure Should open the their Cinema in a town like London, as this is better for the customers as it will be easy for people to get to, more people will go to the cinema at the last minute. They should sell their tickets in the internet because more people use internet and it is easier to book films in the internet as I asked some people in my questionnaire.
The specials offers will be short term, as the customers will get bored of them. Special offers must be changed regularly so that the customers have something new. The club card will be long term, but the deals will change, this is because the free gifts will be changed very season. Strobe Leisure cannot change location, which is long term, because it will cost too much money to move places and people might get confused if the cinema keep changing. The food will be long term; this is because new food will replace the old types and new drinks will add over the years.
